{"id":24137,"date":"2025-01-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-doctor-goes-where-hes-needed-rural-honduras\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:49:10","slug":"durango-doctor-goes-where-hes-needed-rural-honduras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-doctor-goes-where-hes-needed-rural-honduras\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango doctor goes where he\u2019s needed \u2013 rural Honduras"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Mac Johnson of Durango checks the heart of a patient in Los Encinitos, Honduras, while Cape Cares volunteer Omar Santiago, nurse practitioner, records the patient\u2019s vitals. (Courtesy of Mac Johnson\/Cape Cares)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dr. Mac Johnson of Durango may have retired from hands-on emergency medicine a decade ago, but his drive to help people in medical need is as strong as ever.<\/p>\n

For the past 15 years, he\u2019s put his passion to practice in rural Honduras where health care is limited and common drugs like Ibuprofen are \u201cmiracle drugs,\u201d as he called them.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he\u2019s always loved working in the emergency room because it meant being there for people who need him. He\u2019s always loved the idea of volunteerism as well, but work and family life just didn\u2019t leave enough time for it.<\/p>\n

Once his kids left the nest, he and his late wife, Carolyn, who died in 2016, decided they could finally pursue something new. Browsing the internet, they came across a nonprofit group called Cape Cares.<\/p>\n

Cape Cares is a group of doctors from across the United States dedicated to developing clinics in rural Honduras. According to a fundraising letter from the organization, volunteer doctors treat Honduran residents for chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) and asthma; perform acute care for infections, insect bites and allergies; and tend to machete wounds and cooking burns suffered at work and at home.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of work that appeals to Johnson, he said. He and his wife signed up for a couple of back-to-back trips that Cape Cares calls \u201chealth brigades\u201d and they were hooked.<\/p>\n

The village he\u2019s visited most is Los Encinitos, situated near the Guatemalan border in west Honduras. Johnson said the clinic there is in an old, crumbling orphanage with unreliable water and electricity. The number of patients who visit the clinic is declining because people are leaving work in agriculture for new lives in the city.<\/p>\n

\"Workers
Workers smooth out concrete where a 7,000-square-foot clinic is being built by U.S.-based nonprofit Mayor Potencial in rural El Rodeito, Honduras, with support from nonprofit Cape Cares. The clinic is planned to be a destination for medical brigades by 2026. (Courtesy of Mac Johnson\/Cape Cares)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Given there are fewer patients in Los Encinitos, Cape Cares is shifting its focus to another location in El Rodeito in south Honduras where the doctors believe they will be able to help more people, he said. Cape Cares is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to develop a 7,000-square-foot building with facilities for dental work requiring compressed air and suction, and clinic space for orthopedic surgeons and eye surgeons such as opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists.<\/p>\n

The campaign has raised about $100,000 and has another $100,000 to go. The building is being built by partner nonprofit Mayor Potencial. People interested in supporting the project can donate online at https:\/\/bit.ly\/3BV4qEk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The intent with the building is to have a space not just for Cape Cares crews, but for other medical teams to set up shop, he said.<\/p>\n

On a typical trip, Johnson is joined by several medical practitioners and a group of dentists. They fly into an airport outside Tegucigalpa, Honduras\u2019 capital city.<\/p>\n

They meet their liaison \u2013 who he said is a \u201cwonderful woman who\u2019s really just indispensable to our functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The liaison transports them in four-wheel drive vehicles over rough, rudimentary roads to the clinic. They can only visit certain times of the year because seasonal rains raise the river and flooding makes some roads impassable, he said.<\/p>\n

Besides nature\u2019s whims, Honduras\u2019 Customs Administration Agency is a challenge for Johnson and the Cape Cares doctors. He said they rely on a company that specializes in shipping pharmaceuticals into countries. The liaison often picks up the shipment and meets the doctors at the clinic.<\/p>\n

\"Workers
Workers smooth out concrete where a 7,000-square-foot clinic is being built by U.S.-based nonprofit Mayor Potencial in rural El Rodeito, Honduras, with support from nonprofit Cape Cares. The clinic is planned to be a destination for medical brigades by 2026. (Courtesy of Mac Johnson\/Cape Cares)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

They use WhatsApp, social media, churches and radio broadcasts to announce Cape Cares\u2019 arrival.<\/p>\n

Johnson said they\u2019d work for about a week and treat about 600 patients in 15-minute sessions. They spend an hour or more on people with more complicated problems, but generally, they have to work fast in order to see everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty rewarding,\u201d he said of a recent trip. \u201cWe knew we weren\u2019t making dramatic differences in their lives, but we were treating high blood pressure, diabetes, old men with big prostates that couldn\u2019t get through the night without getting up three or four times to pee.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a fellow Cape Cares volunteer and nurse practitioner at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital has been networking with Honduran doctors so Cape Cares has professionals to refer patients to; patients who need treatment for complicated issues such as congenital heart disease, spina bifida and congenital orthopedic hip dysplasia.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of saying, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019ve got this, but I can\u2019t do anything about it,\u2019 now we\u2019re saying, \u2018This is what you have, and we have a place where we can refer you to where hopefully they can help you,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Mac Johnson of Durango meets with a village elder in Los Encinitos, Honduras, on a medical brigade for Cape Cares, a U.S.-based nonprofit that serves residents of rural Honduras. (Courtesy of Mac Johnson\/Cape Cares)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A lot of patients are suffering chronic pain in their lower backs, necks, knees and shoulders. He said many people walk three or four hours to reach the clinic. He said sometimes they arrive on horseback; sometimes they arrive on a burro. Sometimes they arrive after nightfall, after the clinic is technically closed, but they are never turned away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re out there swinging machetes eight hours a day, plus, every day, and the women are bent over wood-burning stones, making tortillas,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of aches and pains. There\u2019s a lot of gastrointestinal stuff. \u2026 General parasites. They can describe the animalitos (little animals) that they see in their stool, so we bring down medicine for that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, an Ibuprofen or Tylenol is all it takes to help a patient with their chronic pain, he said. Young women who are pregnant or are going to get pregnant are treated with vitamins, prenatal vitamins and folic acid.<\/p>\n

Johnson said his late wife, Carolyn, was a skilled Spanish interpreter with enough medical knowledge she would often help another patient in the time it took him to get up, go to the pharmacy and return with medications for a previous patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time I got back, a lot of times she\u2019d say, \u2018OK, this is what he\u2019s got, and this is what he needs,\u2019\u201d he said, laughing. \u201c\u2019Why am I here? She\u2019s on top of it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Workers
Workers smooth out concrete where a 7,000-square-foot clinic is being built by U.S.-based nonprofit Mayor Potencial in rural El Rodeito, Honduras, with support from nonprofit Cape Cares. The clinic is planned to be a destination for medical brigades by 2026. (Courtesy of Mac Johnson)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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